Saturday, August 25, 2012

“People cited violation of the First Amendment
when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang
are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is
not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to
separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of
teachers.' - Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York, Dec. 19, 2006. "Letter to
the Editor" New York Times published December 21, 2006 in the Read
section”

Let me begin by
saying it's not the separation of church and state I am arguing here but the
idea of being intellectually superior and purging those who disagree (something
which radical liberals and the far right have in common).And that, in specific reference to
creation/evolution and Noah’s Ark, as well as a variety of mythologies about
the origin of life and Earth.

First of all, no one really knows
anything.Beyond that, when anyone
approaches a question with a predisposition, religious or anti-religious bias,
chips will fall in the direction of that bias.So Noah’s Ark as folks interpret is pretty far out as is women coming
from dude’s ribs.Let me throw out a
less religious version, explained in more new age vocabulary for the biblically
hindered.

Let’s assume for a moment, nothing
out of the ordinary for any of the theories, that there is an all pervasive
meta-intelligence.This force of
universal consciousness is geared toward generative, creative, and life giving
properties.It permeates all matter,
space and time.Its presence aligns
chemical and biological processes based on mathematical systems to allow the
indwelling of its presence, life, or spirit.The designs of the Universe reflect these mathematical structures from
the smallest subatomic levels to the grandest perspectives we can see in the
Universe.It’s a fingerprint pointing to
the effect of this vibratory presence of a unifying force of some sort.Now be very careful before you think sounds
plausible because you are, in effect, believing in what some people call “God”.Oh! You thought he was an old man in a
chair?Wake up and quit using the lowest
efforts of your intellectual enemies to combat with ancient overused clichés!

To consider that some mud and acid laid around on a rock and
sprung into life to me is far more preposterous.Someone once said it’s like letting paint
drip from a bucket – let it drip long enough and surely the combined works of
Shakespeare will appear!To put this in
biological perspective let me quote Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA. Speaking
on nucleic acid tape or RNA – messengers he says;

“Suppose the
chain is about two hundred amino acids long; this is, if anything, rather less
than the average length of proteins of all types. Since we have just twenty
possibilities at each place, the number of possibilities is twenty multiplied
by itself some two hundred times. This is conveniently written 20200
and
is approximately equal to 10260, that is a
one followed by 260 zeros!This number
is quite beyond our everyday comprehension. For comparison, consider the number
of fundamental particles (atoms, speaking loosely) in the entire visible
universe, not just in our own galaxy with its 1011 stars, but
in all the billions of galaxies, out to the limits of observable space. This
number, which is estimated to be 1080, is quite
paltry by comparison to 10260. Moreover,
we have only considered a polypeptide chain of a rather modest length. Had we
considered longer ones as well, the figure would have been even more immense.
Life Itself (1981) p. 51-52.

He then, in passing, describes the creation of life as nothing
short of a miracle – that this immense line of material should self-organize in
such a manner as to produce the systems necessary for organic maintenance at the
simplest of levels.

But the numerous holes in contemporary evolutionary theory aren’t
the worst problem here.It’s when we
fail to see the truth in Myth and rely on apparent, or ‘taught’, evidence as
the new religion.The saddest part, to
me, of our reliance on so-called science is that we justify our superiority
while entrenching deeper and deeper into a very unscientific approach on the
possibilities that may exist with our own developing abilities both within
science, and our evolving bodies/perception/sensory systems.When kids are taught evolution as fact there
is no room for any extra-terrestrial intervention of any kind in the DNA coding
of species and systems on planet Earth.There is no merit given to the numerous and reputable accounts of human
interaction with rather large reptiles (Draco, Dragon, Dinosaur), and there is
no room for discussion of previous advanced civilizations and mass ecological
catastrophe!All this despite evidence
that such could have occurred.

The beauty of Myth is that while
they may get some metaphorical details twisted around the essence of the
events, the only record we have as a civilization and species is in our ancient
and Holy texts.From around the world we
hear stories of beings from the sky, fallen angels, star people, previous
advanced cultures with technology even beyond our own.We hear echoes of interstellar calamity,
world upheaval and flood, beings far beyond us, and lost knowledge.In this way the essence of Myth more
accurately records our ancient past that our arrogant and limited science.As for Noah and his Ark; let’s just
pretend that somewhere along the line a certain human had access to that all
pervasive meta-intelligence.Let’s
imagine that somehow a human being was able to speak to, to hear, to interpret
correctly, the subtle information flows from that wellspring of life affirming
energy.Let’s say the designer of
subatomic vibratory frequency, a force within every cell of every being spoke
truth and someone heard it.The truth
was a warning and a need to prepare.Perhaps
Noah wasn’t some cloaked fellow with a wooden ship but an ancient wise man with
advanced technology - even the ability to preserve DNA code, samples of life
from as far and wide as he could gather?What if genetic engineering had gone awry and the host of monsters and
parasites following the failed experiment were destroying the fragile Earth
biosphere and this man “Noah” selected the ‘heirloom’ seed of Earth’s
stock?A great calamity ensued
destroying much of the world, told still in the stories from tribal people on
every continent.But because of this
man, and his ability to ‘hear’, to gather, and prepare, life continued and grew
again, renewed, unmolested (until Monsanto).What a treasure that the account survived to be retold again and again,
sung about on Sunday morning and revered in abo tribes around the globe in a
variety of forms!We will never know the details.We will likely never understand the great
events of our past.But to march around
legislating against the ‘ignorant’, purging those who retell the ancient myths
because we hate religion, or faith in general, is indeed a mirror.The modern radical Progressive has much in
common with the Christian zealots of America’s past, the fanatics in the middle
east, the inquisitors of old Europe.So
convinced that they have all truth they first seek to change everyone else into
their own mold and, upon failing that, remove them from the system they have
created.Who is this Neil deGrasse
Tyson? Who are you, any of you to prance around like you are the source of all
knowledge and history and then look down your nose at simple people who have
learned to love the old stories.And if
by any chance the theory of evolution is flawed, fails to explain the whole
story, then what you are legislating is nothing short of the teaching of lies.And in 200 years how will the lie change to
meet the political needs of that era? Who will control the school systems and
pillars of belief?What great good do
you do by removing faith in the unseen and replacing it with a very dead
atheism?I’ll close with a final quote from
Crick;“Biologists
must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather
evolved. It might be thought, therefore, that evolutionary arguments would play
a large part in guiding biological research, but this is far from the case. It
is difficult enough to study what is happening now. To figure out exactly what
happened in evolution is even more difficult. Thus evolutionary achievements can
be used as hints to suggest possible lines of research, but it is highly dangerous
to trust them too much.”What Mad Pursuit
(1988) pp.138-139

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

LOTSWild now has an business location in Canton, NC, located at 10 Murphy Street next to the middle school! Renovations are in progress but soon we will have classes available and some unique wilderness supplies as well. Call ahead to find out store hours.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Dear Friends,

Well, it’s time for the Mountain Express “Best of WNC” nomination! If you would like to support us and other local businesses PLEASE take a few minutes to cast your vote!!! Below are some recommendations of friends and plenty of self-promotion as well :D There are many categories. Additionally, I have multiple friends that fit into the categories – don’t be offended if I recommend someone in your line of work, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are better! Often times they have supported our business or related charities in some way or were just first to come to mind. If you really want to support a particular person or business share the survey link with friends and get the word out. This is a way for small operations with a limited advertising budget to get seen and heard. Thanks SO MUCH.

Google the topic for any other ideas on other categories, ________ (topic) Asheville NC

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LOTS Information

LOTS Wilderness LLC, is a premier experiential education center in western North Carolina. Summer camps give students the opportunity to track, study edible and medicinal plants, stealth, sailing, hiking, bow hunting, crafts and music in one of a kind 1 to 5 day sessions that preserve traditional knowledge of the Appalachian frontier and native Cherokee. We also offer after school classes year round in a variety of self-defense systems collectively known as Integrated Martial Arts for all ages and ability levels. Participants train in Tang Soo Do, Filipino arts, Kenpo-Jiu Jutsu, Jeet Kune Do concepts, and functional fitness among other topics.